2 Peter 1

2 Peter 1:1-4

In this chapter we have, 1. An introduction, ver. 1—4. 2. An exhortation to advance and improve in all Christian graces, ver. 5, 6, 7. To enforce this exhortation, he adds, (1.) A representation of the very great advantage which will thereby accrue to them, ver. 8—11. (2) A promise of the best assistance the apostle was able to give, to facilitate and forward this good work, ver. 12—15. 3. A declaration of the certain truth and divine original of the gospel of Christ, in the grace whereof they were exhorted to increase and persevere.

1. SIMON Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The apostle, being about to finish his glorious course, addresses his last epistle to his Hebrew brethren. We have,

1. The writer: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the dignity to which he was advanced he did not forget, that his office was not so much to rule as to serve the meanest member of the Redeemer’s church.

2. The persons to whom the epistle is addressed. To them that have obtained like precious faith with us, and are interested in the same glorious salvation, through the righteousness of God, or of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the meritorious cause by which we have obtained a sure title to eternal blessedness. Note, (1.) Divine faith may well be called precious,

seeing the effects of it are so unspeakably glorious. (2.) Whatever faith we possess, it is because of our lot among the chosen, who are the objects of Christ’s sovereign love and undeserved favour. (3.) In the divine righteousness of God our Saviour we stand complete before God, and may by right claim all the blessings of perfect obedience.

3. His apostolical benediction. Grace and peace, with all the blessings of the everlasting gospel, be multiplied unto you, in more abundant manifestations and deeper inward experience of them, through the knowledge of God, as your covenant and reconciled God, and of Jesus our Lord, in all the blessed offices and relations he bears towards us his redeemed people.

4. The ground on which he built his confidence that his prayers for them should be heard and answered. According as his divine power hath given unto us freely all things that pertain unto life and godliness, bellowing every blessing and means of grace which can conduce to the furtherance of the divine life in our souls, till it is perfected above, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; our acquaintance with Jesus, and acknowledgment of him as the only Saviour of souls, being effectual to engage us in the pursuit of glory as our end, and with fortitude unshaken to walk in all his holy ways. Whereby (it is) or by whom, even through the grace of these divine Persons, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, above all our conceptions, as well as beyond all our deserts; that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, or a divine nature, by the gospel word, and the great and precious promises therein revealed, wherein beholding as in a glass the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you are transformed into the same image, not partaking of the divine essence, but formed anew after the divine likeness in righteousness and true holiness; having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, flying from out of the world which loth in wickedness, as from a city infected with the plague, and renouncing all the corrupt principles and practices that, through the natural consequences which reigns in every fallen heart, in time past defiled your whole body, soul, and spirit. Note, (1.) All that is good in us comes alone from the divine power and grace. (2.) The gospel calls us to glory and virtue, and at the same time communicates the effectual ability for the performance of all that it commands. (3.) The know-

knowledge of God, as he is revealed to us in the gospel of his dear Son, is the grand means of engaging our hearts towards him. (4.) Exceeding great indeed and precious are those promises, that reach to the deepest state of human guilt and misery, and extend to an eternity of glory in the highest. (5.) They who, by the transforming vision of God in the gospel, are truly made partakers of a divine nature, will shew it by their dead-nets to the world, and the faddoul of every sensual appetite.

5. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6: And to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; 7. And to godliness, brotherly kindnefs; and to brotherly kindnefs, charity. 8. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. But he that lacketh these things, is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old furs. 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11. For so an entrance shall be mustered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:5-11

Because they had already received so much from God, they were bound to make their profiting appear. We have,

1. A golden chain of graces, which we are called to put in, And before this, or for this cause, being you are partakers of a divine nature, giving all diligence to increase with the increase of God, and to your faith virtue, courage and hitherth in the protection of the gospel; and to virtue knowledge, prudently considering the company, place, and time, when our courage in vindicating the cause of Christ may be most successfully received; and to knowledge temperance, keeping our passions and appetites under strict government, and doing all the creatures with a holy moderation; and to temperance patience under every provocation, bearing with the injuries, reproaches, and perversion of others, and men’sly indemnity under every affliction; and to patience god-sands, exercising yourselves in every act of devotion and means of grace, from a principle of love to God, and desire of nearer communion with him; and to godliness brotherly kindnefs, feeling the tenderest sympathy and compassion towards your fellow Christians, and ready to every good word and work that may be helpful to them; and to brotherly kindnefs charity, having your heart enlarged to all mankind, with universal benevolence towards every human creature, and a desire to promote their temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare, not excluding even your greatest and most inveterate enemies.

2. These graces will adorn our profession, as the want of them must necessarily prove to desirous of true Christianity. For if these things be in you, and abound, in lively exercise, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; but as trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, full of life, tap, and fruitfulness, which redounds to his glory. Whilst he that lacketh these things is blind, whatever pretenses to wisdom he may make; and cannot be after off, at best hath but a glutening, and national apprehension of divine truth, being a stranger to that realising faith which brings near the distant objects of an eternal world; and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old furs, unfruitful to the protection which he made at his baptism, and negligent in his application to that blood which alone can cleave him from his iniquities.

3. He exhures all believers to diligence in their Christian course. Wherefore the rather, brethren, considering how many have a name to live who are really dead in trepidity, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, in the lively use of every means of grace, which may bring the fullest assurance of it to our own souls, and in the practice of all holy conversation, which may demonstrate to others that we are indeed chosen vessels, and called unto glory; for, if ye do these things, and live in the exercise of the graces above-mentioned, ye shall never fail, so as finally to apostatize from Christ, and perish with the world: for so an entrance shall be mustered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when at the 12th triumphant over death and the grave, you shall be admitted into all the glories of the eternal world, and so shall be for ever with the Lord. Now, (1.) Though our election be sure in God’s purpose, and in the event to all his people, yet He, who hath connected the means with the end, requires our diligence and care to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (2.) They shall shortly enter an eternal world of glory, who now walk under the influences of a Saviour’s grace.

4. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 13. Yes,

I think it moes, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance: 14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 15. Moreover, I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

2 Peter 1:12-15

The apostle appears careful to discharge his own solemn truth towards them.

Wherefore I shall not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, as matters of the last undisturbed, though ye know them in a good measure, and be established in the present truth, fully satisfied in general of the necessity of holiness, in order to an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I think it moes, as long as I am in this tabernacle of clay, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, that your hearts may be suitably affected, and your practice overtoponomize with your Christian principles. And hereunto I give the greatest diligence, knowing that I must shortly put off this my tabernacle of the body, and be loose silent in the dust, even as, our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour, both by my labours among you and these epistles, which when I am dead will yet speak, that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. Note, (1.) Even the truths we know, we need be often re-rounded of, and urged to shew their influence on our conduct. (2.) A minister’s work is never done till he closes his eyes: his death-bed must be his farewell sermon. (3.) We live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust; but, blessed be God, we need not regret the dissolution of this wretched tabernacle, when we are to exchange it for a mansion of glory.

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. 17. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereupon ye do well that ye take heed; as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-ftar arise in your hearts: 20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God forsake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter 1:16-21

We have here a reason given for the importunity and seriously with which he pressed the foregoing exhortations. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, like the Gentile legends or Jewish traditions, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the last great day of his appearing and glory, to judge the scheduled world of men and angels. But,

1. We were eye-witnesses of his majesty on the mount of transfiguration, and attest that of which we had the fullest demonstration; not only seeing his glorified body shining in all the brightness of the meridian sun, but hearing the voice of God. For he there received from God the Father honour and glory, who bore the fullest testimony in the transcendent diguary of his divine character as his Son Messiah, when there came such a voice as him from the excellent glory, the bright cloud which overthadowed him, the symbol of the divine presence, laying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in his person, officer, and all his undertakings. And this voice, told it time from heaven, we heard distinctly and clearly, when we were with him in the holy mount. So that they could not be mistaken themselves in the things which they satisfied.

2. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, wherein a more direct attestation is borne to the power and coming of Jesus to judgment than might be inferred from what we saw and heard. Or, We have a most sure word of prophecy, wherein this second appearing of the Lord to judgment is most expressly and repeatedly affirmed; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place (and a dark world indeed would this be without the word of God), until the day, the great the expected day of our final redemption, dawn, and the day-ftar arise in your hearts, to shine henceforth with unclouded lustre on his chores, when the Lord shall be our everlasting light, and our God our glory. Knowing this first, that, till the day of Christ appears, we may surely depend upon his prophetic word as our guide; for no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation (earth-ness) is not of human invention or composition, but of celestial origin: for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God, whom he had furnished to be instruments in his hands to deliver his messages, forsake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, directing and dictating both

the

the matter and expression. Note, (1.) The Scriptures alone are our guide to glory. All our wisdom is ignorance, and our light darkeness, without a divine revelation. (2.) The more diligently we take heed to the word of God, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, the more surely shall we walk in haliness and happiness here, and be brought to the perfection of both in heaven hereafter. (3.) The Scriptures carry their own divine authority along with them, and, through the energy of that Spirit who indeed them, impress this full conviction on the confidence. (4.) Though the Bible was written by men, we must say, as of the tables which Moses hewed, that the writing was of God. They were but organs and instruments, and did not themselves often comprehend the full meaning of what they delivered. With what sacred reverence and awe then should we open that holy book, where God himself is heard still speaking!